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Introducing the WordPress Local Translations chart. Historical chart displaying the total amount of locals for each major WordPress versions.

Source

The local stats are based on translate.wordpress.org. wp.org has a statistics page but it shows data only for the last version. This chart sums up the locals for all versions since WordPress 3.0.

This chart was created with the help of Pascal Casier, a well-known community member who contributed a lot to WordPress for many years. He also owns the wp-info.org that has very useful Polyglots Stats, Plugin Stats and Theme Stats.

History

In the past WordPress was released in several local versions, each version had its own local adjustments and translations files (.PO/.MO format).

Now days, most of the local adjustments are handled by core, and the translation files are downloaded automatically from wp.org servers.

The translation is done by a team of volunteers from around the globe using an online tool at translate.wordpress.org. Although it has a statistics page, it shows data only for the last version. This chart displays historical data for older versions.

Insights

Since WordPress 3.0 the amount of local versions has been more that doubled to ~35-45 languages to ~80-95. It’s a huge deal! Well done polyglot team!

The increase is not consistent, in some versions we see decline in the total amount of languages. It is understandable, the translation is done by volunteers.

Another factor is the polyglot slack channel and the polyglot blog, they provide good resources for volunteers. I should also mention the wpTranslationDay.org initiative as one of the notable results of this collaboration.

I believe that in 12-18 months the polyglot community will be able to translate the core to over 100 languages.

Have other insights? Share them in the comments area below.